


You Should Have Asked

by lunarlychallenged



Category: Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: and I'm not sure I like it, but you know how it goes, this was a request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-24 12:59:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14955162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarlychallenged/pseuds/lunarlychallenged
Summary: “can you write some janis x reader angst? like they get into a fight and shiz goes down?”If Janis hadn't wanted you to go to Homecoming with somebody else, she should have asked you herself.





	1. Asking

You frowned at Janis, who hadn’t looked at you since the two of you got to her house after school. She hadn’t touched you at all, which struck you as strange. She was such a touchy person, constantly taking Cady’s hand, holding on to Damian, or throwing herself into your arms. You didn’t expect her to be attached to you at all times, but you expected her to be a little more welcoming than she was now.

Maybe you had upset her. Maybe she was upset about something that had nothing to do with you.

Maybe you should ask her what was wrong. Maybe you should pretend that nothing was wrong, at least until she felt like telling you for herself.

You glanced up from your notebook to where she was laying on her bed, writing on her paper. Doodling, really. You looked a little closer to see what she was drawing, but when you saw that it was just a dark cloud of angry swirls, you paused. She must be really bothered. You heard her paper tear under the pressure of her pencil, and you winced. Her whispered obscenities were heavy with outrage.

You’d definitely have to ask her now.

“Everything okay?” 

“I’m fine,” she said flatly.

“Sure, Jan,” you said lightly. You thought that she would laugh, maybe complain about using such an outdated meme, but she didn’t react at all. “Janis, seriously, what’s the problem?”

She tossed the pencil onto the floor, sitting up to look at you. “You really want to talk about this? Fine. I’m pissed that you wrecked our Homecoming plans.”

You blinked at her. There had hardly been plans for the dance at all. You, Janis, and Damian had all gotten tickets, so you were all going, but that was kind of it. Cady was stoked to have gotten Aaron to come home for the weekend so he could go to the dance with her, so none of you expected her to hang out much.

“Sorry, what plans?”

“You, me, and Damian! We were all supposed to go together, and you wrecked it by getting a date last minute,” she snapped.

That was true - you had gotten a date that day. Amber D’Alessio had asked you to go with her, and since you couldn’t think of a real reason to say no, you had agreed. There was a specific reason that you would have loved to have, but since Janis still hadn’t asked you to be her date, it was a non-starter. 

You could have asked Janis to the dance yourself, but she could be strange about those things. If she had been freaked out by it, she would have teased you relentlessly for the rest of your friendship. You had thought that it was best to let her decide that she wanted to be with you on her own. You stood by that decision, but since she still hadn’t asked you by three days before the dance, you decided that it probably wasn’t ever going to happen.

“I’m sorry that somebody else’s interest in me was inconvenient for you,” you said. You were a little proud of how calm you sounded. Petty, maybe, but you had been disappointed that Janis wasn’t interested in you. You thought she was pretty great.

“Right,” she scoffed. “It’s so flattering that a girl who makes out with hot dogs likes you, Y/N.”

“At least she asked me,” you snapped. “It’s not like anybody else did.”

Janis fell silent, gaping at you. You could count on one hand the number of times you had seen her speechless, but it wasn’t gratifying now.

“If you had wanted to be sure I would hang out with you there, you should have asked me yourself,” you said.

“I was going to,” she said. Her voice was small, and she wasn’t looking directly at you. Her gaze was locked on a candy wrapper sitting near your calf.

You gaped at her, surprised. A wave of irritation overwhelmed the small explosion of fireworks in your stomach. She had wanted to ask you, which was great, but she shouldn’t be mad at you for not waiting anymore. “When? Tomorrow? When we picked out a restaurant before the dance? In the middle of the dance?”

She gave a violent shrug. “I don’t know! I was going to ask you, but I wanted to be sure you would say yes.”

“I would have,” you said. “I waited for you to ask. I really wanted you to.”

She gave a small smile. “We could still go together.”

“No,” you said. She blinked at you, hurt, but you cut off anything she could have said. “No, you don’t get to do this. “If you wanted to be with me, you should have asked. You shouldn’t have waited this long, as though nobody else would want me. I have a date, and I’m not cancelling it to go with somebody who took my presence for granted.”

Janis looked hurt for a second, hands wrinkling the paper she had been doodling on. She carefully wiped her face of all emotion and smoothed the paper. “Well, that’s just tits. Have fun with Amber. I hope she smells like hot dog water.”

Neither of you spoke, glaring at your papers as though it would lessen the hurt that had been so preventable.


	2. Seeing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You please do a follow up to your Janis x reader angst. I would love you forever”

The only thing worse than your date with Amber was the fact that you knew the crappiness was your fault.

She was a really sweet girl, and she was being sweet even when you weren’t. You had not spoken to her too much in the years you had been in classes together, but all of that time did amount to a fragile sort of friendship. Apparently she liked you well enough to ask you out, but you were sure that that would be over by the end of the night.

You had grimaced through the obligatory pictures, jerking your hand away from her waist the moment you were allowed to.

She had smiled as though she didn’t notice, but you saw that her gaze lingered on your flexing fingers. It was easier in the car, when you didn’t have to look at each other. Words could be said to the road, or to the grass and the sky. “You look really nice,” she said. 

You smiled for the first time since she had arrived. You had been tempted to slack off, but you weren’t going to let Janis win that way. If you were going to blow her off for the girl who had actually asked you, you were going to do it right. “Thanks. You too.”

“You say that as though you had actually looked at me,” she said lightly.

You flinched, realizing that she was right. You looked her over and committed her to memory; the dress, the hair, the makeup, making sure to look her in the eye afterwards. “Really, you look beautiful. I’m kind of in a funk, and I’m sorry.”

She smiled back at you. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll bet we can break you out of it with food.”

Oh, she had been wrong. The conversation was stilted, broken by you drifting into your thoughts. Amber would say something, and you would think about whether Janis would agree or what she would say in response. You would think of a story to tell, but Janis would be in it. It was as though Janis was haunting the evening, on a date with you even though you had turned her down.

Strangely enough, it was easier at the dance. The dark was only punctured by the pulsing music, and you could almost feel like you were alone in it. Nobody felt real, though these were all people you had known since childhood.

You danced. You perused the table of food, predictably disappointed by the selection. You made small talk with Amber and her friends. You were able to forget how you imagined the evening until around the halfway point of the evening.

You were looking out at the crowd of teenagers when something broke through the darkness. Janis.

Janis was dressed to the nines, only outshone by Damian’s powder blue suit. If Amber had been with you, you might have pretended to ignore them. Amber was off saying hello to some other friends, so when Damian boomed your name across the room, you had no excuse to avoid them.

“Damian,” you crooned. “Really channeling your inner Ron Stoppable with that outfit.”

He looked down, the dawning realization evident on his face. He scowled, but you could see the underlying grin. “I wear it better.”

You shrugged, basking in his outrage. “And Janis, radiant as always.”

“You don’t look too shabby yourself,” she said with a grudging smile. “Where’s your date-mate?”

You nodded into the mass of bodies. “Somewhere in the hive.”

“I’ll bet you could find her, if you looked for a hot dog smell.”

“Okay!” Damian cut in, pushing the two of you together while backing himself away. “If Amber is gone, you two can dance. Great!”

You froze, your front inches from Janis’. You looked her in the eye, neither of you budging. In spite of it all - your irritation with Janis, your shame about your attitude with Amber, that desire to make Janis jealous - you wanted to dance with her. It was one of those quasi-slow songs that was too quick to be romantic but too slow to jump around to.

You held out one hand. “I’m in if you are.”

She grabbed your hand and put the other on your shoulder. You put yours on her waist. You swayed with her in a slow circle.

“How’s the date going?” She was looking somewhere over your shoulder when she asked, as though she didn’t want to see you if you said it was wonderful.

“Not great,” you admitted. “It’s not her fault; I just don’t want to be here with her.”

“Why did you even say yes? You knew you weren’t interested.”

You had to search for the words. You had been asking yourself the same question since the second you agreed. “It wasn’t a rebound, exactly, but it almost was. She was going to be my first step to getting over you. The ‘Y/N doesn’t mope when Janis doesn’t care’ step. I would have been fine if I hadn’t known you were interested.”

She looked at you, face a mask of irritation and pleasure. “Gee, I’m sorry for wrecking the plan.”

You shrugged. “There are ups and downs.”

“Like?” She inched a little closer.

“Being a major dick to Amber is a definite down,” you said.

“And an up?”

“It makes dancing with you a lot more fun,” you admitted. You could feel her breath ghosting across your face.

“I can think of something to make it even more fun,” she said with a wicked grin. She leaned in, but you recoiled.

You put several inches of space between the two of you, barely resisting the urge to leap away. “No, no, no. No, that’s not happening.”

“What?” The word was a snarl, her eyes glazed with hurt. “What, because I didn’t ask you? Seriously, Y/N, you’re still pissed about that?”

“Jesus, Janis, no. I’m not making out with you when I’m on a date with somebody else,” you said.

“Oh.” You resumed the journey in a slow, swaying circle. “But you’ll make out with me after the date? Tomorrow?”

You fought down a grin. “Absolutely.”

She beamed at you, face transforming. She was breathtaking when she smiled. “Tits. Now get back to Amber. If she asks you to have a threesome with a hot dog, say no.”

You backed away, finally allowing yourself to smile at her. “You’re already so controlling. We haven’t even gone out yet.”

“Consider it a sneak peek.” She disappeared into the crowd, so you headed back to Amber. You would make sure she had a nice night. You could probably save the friendship, and you were sure she wouldn’t be hurt when you started going out with Janis. It had been a long time coming.


End file.
